PPP commemorated the anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom on the fifth year tenure in their own government instead of catching her killers; meantime they have rewarded them with ministerialships and other benefits and awards instead of their accountability. Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed that all those who conspired and killed Benazir Bhutto had been arrested and would be exposed at an appropriate time but the statement proved to be farce and Pakistani people are still waiting for the revelation of the conspiracy and exposure of the conspirators and killers of Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan has moved from a developing nation to the depths of collapse and despair under the present Government, burdening the masses with inflation and economic miseries. No one can deny that the country has moved to a pitiable position during the last five years. People across the country are today facing “untold miseries, with no jobs, poverty, price hike, acute gas, power load shedding, kidnappings, killing of innocent people. Top leaders of the ruling Party proudly say that their government has successfully completed five-year constitutional term. PPP has completed five years only due to that the establishment, including military and judiciary, as well as political parties with a diversified culture agreed on a single point to take forward the ship of democracy in the country at any cost. Otherwise this government is a source of nothing but harm for the nation and each day it remains in power causes irreparable damage to the people. The PPP government is pursuing anti-people policies but its leadership is emotionally blackmailing the people taking patronage of their assassinated leader – Benazir Bhutto.
Many Pakistanis are angry that Zardari’s government has failed to tackle pervasive corruption or end the daily power cuts that have brought its industrial sector to its knees. Since Asif Ali Zardari being elected as president, popularity of both the party and the president has fallen significantly as the government has failed to address pressing problems. The government has miserably failed to maintain law and order in Sindh, particularly Karachi, asking the rulers to step down and bring a caretaker setup. The traditional and age-old slogans of the PPP through its chairman’s inaugural political speech would not be helpful to restore party’s lost popularity. The rulers would also have to face accountability for sky rocketing prices of essential good, load-shedding, CNG crisis, etc. Hard fact is that Pakistan People’s Party government gave nothing to the nation except miseries and looting.
The PPP’s slogan and manifesto of “roti, kapra aur makan” (food, clothes and housing) also sounds ridiculous when more than 70 per cent of Pakistanis are suffering from food insecurity. PPP promised all the people by roti, kapra aur makan, but have given them only hunger, poverty and destitution. The people have now no charm and attraction in the slogan “Roti, Kapra and Makan. According to Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, PPP rulers have spent billions of rupees from public funds on the tomb at Garhi Khuda Buksh Bhutto, out of which they have pilfered at least half the amount along with contractors and executing companies, just as they have done with the funds allocated for development works in Larkana. PPP government is printing notes of billions of rupees. Railways, PIA, Steel Mills, ZTBL and other public institutions are on the brink of destruction due to ill-planned policies of present government. Foreign investors do not visit Pakistan for business deals and prefer meetings in Dubai, Singapore. Country’s economy has virtually collapsed and the flight of capital is rapidly taking place from the country owing to law and order situation and extortion. The country has also sunk in a sea of debts during the last five years.
When President Zardari and an army of ministers arrive in Naodero or Garhi Khuda Buksh Bhutto, life becomes a misery for the people of the area because thousands of personnel of various law enforcement agencies surround the whole area for several miles and impose virtual curfew. it is also a fact that half the police and other security forces of the country are deployed in guarding VIP’s, because of which people have negligible security of life and property and even Karachi, which is the heart of Pakistan, has become a hub of crime, the responsibility for which lies on the shoulders of the present rulers.
Bilawal, who has been launched into the political arena of the country on this event believing this would reinvigorate the party for the coming general elections, in his speech attacked on the judiciary as derogatory and noted that it appears he would stick to the party policy of adopting aggressive posture against the judiciary. His criticism of the judiciary also undermined his mother’s statement when she vowed to raise the national flag at the residence of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. PPP-led government could not arrest Benazir Bhutto’s killers even after being in power. In his speech, Bilawal raised concerns over Benazir’s killers going without trial, and roaming at large. Everybody with a common understanding fails to understand what is stopping the PPP government from arresting and prosecuting the killers. Expressing grave concern over delay in investigation process, even workers of Pakistan People’s Party are now vehemently demanding their Government to arrest the killers of Benazir Bhutto. Five years have passed since December 27, 2007 but Bhutto’s killers have so far not been traced despite the fact that President Asif Ali Zardari had stated he knew her killers. Probe by the UN Commission with payment from the public exchequer took more than a year but ultimately proved inconsequential. Inordinate delay in solving the murder mystery has given rise to different suspicions.
Since his speech had no mention to the miseries being faced by the masses, it is proved that he has no concerns with the people and there is a total disconnect between the UK-returned new leader and the people of Pakistan. Bilawal is too young to participate in the elections himself being below 25 — but PPP consider him to be a key asset for the Party. The party’s popularity has plummeted since it took power nearly five years ago. The people have been pushed into the energy crisis and basic needs such as education, healthcare and financial security are not provided to them. Unemployment is rampant and corruption is at its peak. The existing rulers have increased deprivation, multiplied frustration and have allowed lawlessness to flourish — Massive public gatherings are not the sole guarantee for acquiring a mandate for the formation of a government. Perhaps launching Bilawal into political arena would also not prove fruitful this time.
